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When the days are long and you feel like you're energy is being zapped away as the minutes tick by, just get on your 1980's leotard and do a little pommel horsing and I promise your worries will melt away.

I don't know why this is not a regular fixture in every home. this can be changed, but it's going to take us all to do it. Let's start a revolution. We'll have to find an inexpensive way to mass produce them, but knowwe can do it...it may seem insur'mount'able but we will be the next Oksana Baiuls of home design.

This new year...make a goal with me that we will all be able to keep-- let's bring the pommel horses home.

I'm so grateful for the example of Jesus Christ as I was growing up to have a role model for living a kind, loving life. I'm grateful that I live in a place with religious freedom. I'm grateful that everyone can choose how they practice spiritually and how they fill themselves with love in this life.

I hope that my kids learn to question and be curious about all facets of life. I hope they learn to follow what is deep down in their hearts, what they know to be true. I hope that they don't allow others perceptions of what is right to alter their hearts. I hope they are filled with love for everyone, not just for those who are easy to love.

We have had the most lovely of holidays this year. Instead of cooking a big meal Christmas Day I decided to set out a Smorgasbord. I set out fixings for samwiches (yes, I'm one of "those" people who says Sam-wich) -- egg salad, tuna and ham & cheese and veggies, fruit and bananas & cereal & milk. I put everything that needed to stay cold on ice and just let everyone nibble all day long. It was brilliant! The only thing I had to do was add more ice and I got to enjoy the day with everyone else. And I got to say "Smorgasbord" a lot!

My parents and my father-in-law came to visit and we spent the whole day lounging around the house, playing with loads of Legos, Lincoln Logs and Polly Pockets. It was great not to be in a rush, not to have to run off somewhere, to be together as a family all day long.

I hope that all of you and yours have the most wonderful of holidays and that however you choose to fill yourself with love, that you are full to the brim!

My little lady in the middle-- Miss Tiger is a doughnut fiend. So for her birthday we had a doughnut themed party. We ate them, we decorated with them, we hit a giant replica of them until we shook out all its sprinkles and the children dashed to grab them up off the lawn.

Tiger has an artistic soul. She sees the beauty in the tiniest of objects and has a keen eye for color combining...something that has taken me years of design watching and pinterest gawking to come even close to, and she has it at seven. She is passionate about the way she sees things and it's hard for her to have her vision altered by anyone. She will spread gorgeousness all around her wherever she goes...mark my words.

Here's a pic of her doughnut being bashed to bits

If you want to make your own doughnut pinata...there's a great tutorial at Studio DIY here

Do you ever get so overwhelmed at the fact that the same stuff has to be done day after day...forever? Before I had a house I kind of thought that maintaining a house could not be that hard and that once I had kids some innate drive to nest would cause me to want to clean up...I'm 14 years into home ownership and 10 years into child-rearing and I was sorely wrong on both accounts. There are the rare times when I'm not hormonal and when I'm not stressed and the kids are happily playing that I actually get a burst of energy and feel like charging through the house, finding a place for everything or chucking it out the door. But the whole rest of forever I mostly avoid and resent and step over.

I'm curious, how do you keep happy like Frank the French Toast in everyday housekeeping?

Sweet Burger got face paint for his 4th birthday and he wanted to paint my face. I think this is a good look for me. I think this approaching winter (which I get tight in my chest just thinking about) I am going to have him do my makeup every morning, like these models and rock stars:

Like this gorgeously realistic face paint art from Alexander Khokhlov's Art of Face collection found here.

Or this human art palette on Lady Gaga*

Who says I can't be a star at my own neighborhood grocery store. Maybe if I feel like I'm on stage then I can look at all the piles of laundry and dishes and toys as props instead of annoyances. Every time I step into my minivan crusted with dirt and boogers and chicken nuggets I can imagine that I am travelling to my debut concert incognito, so throngs of fans won't recognize me. Did you recognize me last week as I was yelling at my kids to get into the van as I'm trying to quickly shove the groceries into the trunk and slam the door at the same time so it will all fit in? Did you? See, I knew you thought I was a harried mom who had given up on disciplining and her resolve to stop swearing...little did you know.

*If anyone knows the source of this Gaga pic, please let me know so I can give credit where credit is due

As one of the neighbor kids was leaving our house today I said "Go say bye to Ryan" to 4 year old Burger and he exclaimed, "No, he's too fat!" I gasped and then remembered that Burger has a hard time saying his "s's" What he was trying to say was that Ryan was too FAST for him to catch up to.

Many such misinterpretations have happened in our family, to the point that I'm afraid that I'm raising a bunch of sailors.

When my oldest daughter Loves was little she used to say "grandma" with a "D" so whenever she'd see my sweet proper British mum she would yell out

"HEY DAMN-MA"

Then Tiger came along and when she was 2 the way she would ask if I could hold her was she would stand in the hall and indignantly demand "Sit, Sit" (wanting me to hold her and sit down with her). Unfortunately she would do this out in public as well and she said her "s's" with a great big "SH" every time. And every time I just wanted to say "I agree Tiger, I agree"

It's almost too uncanny to mention but it's true. Our progression of swearing has been true to form as little Burger came to our family and began to talk. Instead of "crackers" he would say "fackers"....well, you can imagine where this is going....let's just say I try to avoid being around others when we see a diesel go by and he yells "TRUCK TRUCK"....whew, good thing we're raising sailors not kids or there would be a lot of old ladies blushing.